Comments

Revised Common Lectionary Commentary

Clippings:
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - September 16, 2018

Saint Dominiccontemplating the Scriptures

Author's note:Sometimes I have material left over when I edit Comments down to
fit the available space. This page presents notes that landed on the clipping
room floor. Some may be useful to you. While I avoid technical language
in the Comments (or explain special terms), Clippings may have unexplained
jargon from time to time.

A hypertext Glossary of Terms is integrated with Clippings. Simply
click on any highlighted word in the text and a pop-up window will appear
with a definition. Bibliographic references are also integrated in the
same way.

Proverbs 1:20-33

Verse 1: “The proverbs of Solomon”: Solomon’s name lends
authority to this collection of proverbs. 1 Kings
4:29-32 says: “God gave Solomon very great wisdom ... He composed three
thousand proverbs”. [
NJBC]

Verse 1: “Solomon ... David ... Israel”: A scholar has pointed
out that the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in these names adds up to the
number of lines in the book. [
NJBC]

Verse 12: “Sheol”: The realm of the dead is pictured as being
below the earth. As Isaiah
5:14 and Habakkuk
2:5 say, “Sheol” is an insatiable mouth swallowing the dead. A premature
death was considered punishment for sin. [
NJBC]

Verse 15: The two ways or paths are a fundamental theme of the book. See
2:12-22, and also Psalm
1. [
NJBC]

Verse 19:
15:27 says of the principle of retribution: “Those who are greedy for unjust
gain make trouble for their households, but those who hate bribes will live”.
See also
28:16. [
NJBC]

Verses 20-33: In the light of New Testament revelation (see Luke
11:31; John
1:1-18; Colossians
1:15-20), it is not difficult for the Christian to see here a foreshadowing of
the revelation of the second person of the Trinity and the coming of the divine
Logos into the world; although the authors of Proverbs never affirm the second
person in God. [
JBC]

Verses 26-27: Wisdom’s mocking laughter will repay the disdain of
the wayward (see also Psalms
2:4 and
59:9); the refusal to hear them (see also Micah
3:4; Isaiah
1:15; Jeremiah
11:11; Hosea
5:6) will repay their stubbornness.

Verses 28-32: Recall that the rich man, in the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus, also waited too long before seeking help. [
JBC]

Verse 31: “eat the fruit of their way”: In Galatians
6:7, Paul warns: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever
you sow”. [
JBC]

Verse 33: What Wisdom offers her faithful echoes the theology of Deuteronomy
28:1-14: “If you will only obey the
Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding
you today, the Lord your God will set
you high above all the nations of the earth ...”. [
JBC]

NOAB suggests that the original poem was vv.
1-6, and that vv.
7-14 praise of the revelation of God in the Law, were added later in order to
counterbalance what seemed to be an almost pagan influence upon the revelation of
God in nature; however
NJBC considers that the thematic connections show that this psalm has always
been one poem. He views the Law as one of God’s works.

Verses 1-6: The glory of God is shown in the phenomena of the heavens
and especially in the might of the sun. [
NOAB] God’s glory is revealed through the splendour and order of creation,
especially in the daily cycle of the sun. [
CAB]

Verses 1-4a: The sky and successive days and nights are personified as
members of a heavenly choir ceaselessly singing God’s praises. [
NOAB]

Verse 1: “the glory of God”: For the attribution of glory
to God (here El in Hebrew), see also
24:7,
10 (“king of glory”) and
29:3 (“God of glory”). “Glory” suggests both the nimbus
of light enveloping the deity and the storm cloud: see Exodus
40:34; Psalm
18:12-13. [
NJBC]

Wisdom in a genuinely metaphysical sense (as opposed to the poetic
sense in Proverbs), acting as an agent of God in the world.

A scholar
writes: “The consequences of these developments for New Testament Christology
can hardly be exaggerated”.

7:22-23: Much of the terminology is borrowed from Greek philosophy and
religion, where the qualities are ascribed to Isis, pagan goddess of wisdom, and
to a world soul or
Logos. The author aims to show that divine wisdom is Isis, world soul, and Logos
– and more. The philosophy is mostly
Stoic. [
NJBC]

Wisdom is also personified in Proverbs
1:20-23;
8:1-36; Job
28; Baruch
3:9-4:4; Sirach
24:1-21. Wisdom is not a person separate from
Yahweh, but a personification of functions of Yahweh. Such personification is
common in the Old Testament (e.g. Spirit, Word, Justice). In earlier
wisdom literature, wisdom was an effect of the Spirit of God; in these verses,
1:5-7 and
9:17, Wisdom is identified with the Spirit of the Lord and becomes an immanent
(in-dwelling) cosmological principle of physical and moral life. [
NJBC]

7:22: “manifold”: She is manifold in her manifestations and
activity, the ways and places she shows herself, even though she is one (unique).
[
NJBC]

7:22: “subtle”: i.e. spiritual, without physical being.

7:23: “all-powerful, overseeing all”: A notion expanded on
in
7:26-8:1.

7:23: “steadfast, sure, free from anxiety”: Because she is
unchanging in her plans, unerring, and unable to be hindered. [
NJBC]

7:24: “her pureness”: It is metaphysical rather than moral.
There is nothing in her that is gross or of the earth – as the following verses
show. [
NJBC]

7:24: Mobility is one of the characteristics of Wisdom in vv.
22-23. She is mobile because of her purity and divine origin. [
NJBC]

7:25-26: These verses enlarge on Proverbs
8 and Sirach
24. The images are as immaterial (non-physical) as possible, to describe the
origin and divinity of Wisdom. [
NJBC] Note the parallels in Hebrews
1:1-3: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by
the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed
heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection
of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things
by his powerful word...”.

7:27: “renews all things”: In Psalm
104:30, a psalmist says of
Yahweh: “When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew
the face of the ground”. See also Psalm
102:26-27. [
NJBC]

7:29: “superior”: i.e. brighter, more brilliant.

7:30: “against wisdom evil does not prevail”: An idea also
expressed in v.
25c: “nothing defiled gains entrance into her”.

The author rebukes two besetting sins of the teacher: intemperate speech (vv.
1-12) and arrogance (vv.
13-18). [
NOAB] The office of teacher was a position of great honour in the early church.
Paul ranks them third in his list of those whom “God has appointed in the church”
(in 1 Corinthians
12:28), and says that teaching is a gift (in Romans
12:6-8). Acts
13:1 mentions those who were teachers at Antioch. See also Ephesians
4:11-13. The author echoes the warnings of Jesus in Matthew
5:19;
23:6-8. [
NJBC] The tongue is the instrument of the teacher. It is also the strongest muscle
in the body.

Verse 2: “perfect”: The word in the Greek is teleios
, meaning morally perfect (or complete) as a Christian. It is also found in
Matthew
5:48 (“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”);
Colossians
1:28 (NRSV: “mature”);
4:12. [
NJBC]

Verse 5b: The idea of a great conflagration coming from a small fire was
common in Greek moralizing.

Verse 6: “the tongue is a fire”: Sirach
28:22-23 says: “It [the tongue] has no power over the godly; they will
not be burned in its flame. Those who forsake the Lord will fall into its power;
it will burn among them and will not be put out. It will be sent out against them
like a lion; like a leopard it will mangle them.”

Verse 6: “a world of iniquity”: The Greek may mean the
sum total of iniquity. [
NJBC]

Verse 6: “sets on fire the cycle of nature”:
NJBC offers setting on fire the wheel of birth but notes that the meaning
is uncertain. Similar phrases are found in
Hellenistic literature, especially in connection with
Orphic rites.

Verse 7: In Genesis
1:26, God gives humans dominion over fish, reptiles, birds, and animals. [
CAB] The animals are in the same order here as in Genesis
9:2 (God to Noah); Deuteronomy
4:17-18 (do not make idols) and 1 Kings
4:33 (Solomon). [
NJBC]

Verse 8: “deadly poison”: Psalm
140:3 says that evildoers “... make their tongue sharp as a snake's, and
under their lips is the venom of vipers”. See also Romans
3:13. [
CAB]

Verse 9: “those who are made in the likeness of God”: See
Genesis
1:26;
9:6 (“ in his own image God made humankind”); Sirach
17:3; Wisdom of Solomon
2:23. [
CAB] [
NJBC]

Verse 11: The imagery is characteristic of
Palestine, where springs are of great importance in the dry season. We seem to
have moved from Hellenistic ways of speaking (in v.
6) to Jewish ones. [
NJBC]

Verse 11: “fresh and brackish water”: In 2 Esdras
5:9, the combination of sweet and brackish water is seen as a sign of the coming
of the end-times: “Salt waters shall be found with the sweet, and all friends
shall conquer one another; then shall reason hide itself, and wisdom shall withdraw
into its chamber”. [
NJBC]

Verse 12: This is similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew
7:16: he says that you shall identify false prophets “by their fruits”.
He asks: “Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?”. See
also Luke
6:44-45. [
CAB]

The identification of Jesus is acceptable as far as it goes, but it needs amplification/explanation:
people need to know how the passion and death of Jesus fit with the identification
as the Jewish messiah. [
NJBC]

Verse 28: The same list of possibilities as at the execution of John the
Baptist: see
6:14-16. [
NOAB]

Verse 29: In John
6:67-69, Peter tells Jesus: “We have come to believe and know that you
are the Holy One of God”. [
NOAB] Both Messiah and Christ mean anointed one. Though
various figures were anointed in ancient Israel, the term messiah came to
be applied to kings. Some contemporary writings (especially Psalms of Solomon 17) used it to describe Israel’s future
leader in the period before the eschaton (
end-times) and during it; he would fulfill Israel’s hopes based on God’s
promises. [
NJBC]

Verse 31: “Son of Man”: This term seems to have had two meanings
to Jesus’ listeners:

Jesus calls himself a typical human being in accordance with the common
meaning of son of, i.e. patterned after

Jesus linked himself
with the prophesied figure of Daniel
7:13-14 – hence Jesus as the glorified heavenly judge. (In the NRSV, Daniel
7:13 speaks of “one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven”;
in the Aramaic original, it is one like a son of man who comes: see NRSV footnote.)

Jesus often speaks at two levels simultaneously.

Jesus nowhere discloses fully his understanding of the term. He could intend
both meanings to apply to him. His way was to oblige his hearers to determine their
own personal attitudes to him, as part of the process of understanding his words.

Verse 31: “undergo great suffering”: Jesus identifies himself
with the
suffering Servant of Isaiah. Isaiah
53:3 says “He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and
acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised,
and we held him of no account”.

Verse 31: “rejected”: The sense is repudiated religiously
. Jeremiah
8:9 says that fools who rely on human wisdom repudiate God. God repudiates Israel
for her folly or infidelity: see Jeremiah
6:30;
7:29;
14:19. Here Jesus is repudiated by people. Note that in Mark, the Pharisees play
no explicit part in Jesus’ condemnation and death. [
JBC]

Verse 31: “three days”: Hosea
6:1-2 says that the third day is the decisive turning point: “Come, let
us return to the Lord ... After two
days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before
him”. Jonah
1:17 tells us that
Yahweh saves Jonah by having him spend time in the belly of a fish;
2:10 tells us that after three days Yahweh has the fish spew him out.

Verse 33: “Get behind me, Satan!”: Jesus sees in Peter’s
words a continuation of Satan’s temptation. [
NOAB] Jesus indicates that the false view of his messiahship is a temptation:
see Job
1-2. Having grasped that Jesus is the Messiah, Peter sees messiahship in a contemporary
Jewish way: the Messiah was not expected to suffer. [
NJBC]

Verse 34: “cross”: Jesus sees acceptance of his message with
its promise as also bringing destruction. Only those who in faith accept the threat
of destruction will find life. In Matthew
10:38-39, Jesus says: “... whoever does not take up the cross and follow
me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for my sake will find it”. See also Matthew
5:11-12;
16:24; Mark
10:29-31; Luke
9:24-25;
14:27;
17:33; John
12:25.

Verse 35: “life”: Greek: psyche; one’s very being,
true self. [
JBC] The value of the true self is described in vv.
36-37.

Verse 38: “adulterous”: A term used by Old Testament prophets
to describe Israel’s turning away from God: see Jeremiah
3:8; Ezekiel
23:37; Hosea
2:2-10. [
JBC]